Kuala Lumpur, January 25 – Yesterday’s meeting of MIC division heads summoned by Deputy President Dato Seri Dr S.Subramaniam (pic) witnessed key leaders from MIC Selangor State denouncing Palanivel’s leadership and throwing their support behind the Deputy President.
MIC observers said this is a significant development since Palanivel is also the self-appointed State Chairman of Selangor, a key state in MIC’s political structure,which carries the highest number of delegates and branches.
Palanivel is also the State Chairman of Perak, the second largest state in terms of MIC’s membership. Several division leaders from the state led by former state chairman Dato Raju also attended the meeting yesterday.
Leading the pack of Selangor MIC leaders were three key office-bearers of MIC Selangor State namely State Secretary K.R.Parthiban, Assistant Secretary Dato S.M.Muthu and Treasurer N.Rawisandiran. Parthiban controls Tanjong Karang division while Muthu is chairman of Kelana Jaya division and Rawisandiran is chairman of Serdang division.
Rawisandiran’s presence in yesterday’s meeting also shocked everyone as he has been a strong supporter of Palanivel for many years and stood for CWC in Palanivel’s line-up in the party elections held in 2013. He was also the MIC candidate for Batu Caves in GE13.
Several division leaders, until now seen as strong allies of Palanivel attended yesterday’s meeting despite a strongly worded press statement from the President that “he did not delegate any powers to Deputy President to call for meetings or to brief MIC leaders on RoS issues”.
Division leaders were also pressured by Palanivel’s key supporters urging them not to attend yesterday’s meeting.
Other Selangor division heads who attended yesterday’s meeting include Ampang division chairman Wilson, Shah Alam chairman Murugavel, Hulu Langat chairman Dato Gopalakrishnan, Kuala Langat chairman Batumalai, Kuala Selangor Chairman Jeeva and Puchong chairman Sakthivel – all once seen as Palanivel’s key supporters in Selangor.
Palanivel ‘loses’ Selangor
With these defections, MIC sources claimed that Palanivel has completely lost his power base of Selangor. Other division heads from Selangor who threw their support behind Dr Subra in yesterday’s meeting include Klang division chairman Senator S.A.Vigneswaran and Sabak Bernam chairman Chandrapragasam.
With these leaders attending yesterday’s meeting it is now clear that 12 divisions, more than half of Selangor’s 22 divisions are supporting Dr Subra’s camp. As to the other divisions, several divisions are said to be divided over Palanivel’s style of leadership and inefficient manner of governing the party.
In addition to these Selangor state leaders, Youth leader Sivarajah, Women leader Mohana Muniandy, Puteri Wing leader Gunamalar have also declared their support towards Subra’s leadership.
Another key leader who surprised everyone by attending yesterday’s meeting is Dato Gunasekaran, the state chief of Pahang, who was recently appointed as a Senator by Palanivel.
Of the 5 MIC Senators, three of them namely Jaspal Singh, Vigneswaran, Gunasekaran are now supporting Dr Subra. Deputy Ministers Saravanan and Kamalanathan are also standing solidly behind Dr Subra.
MIC Observers are of the opinion that yesterday’s meeting proved a tremendous victory of Subra, who stood his ground in calling for the meeting despite opposition from the President.
With such overwhelming support, (with more than 70 division heads personally attending) he has sent a strong message to other division heads that he is ready to take on Palanivel head-on and provide a strong alternative leadership for the party, something which is seen as desperately needed at this hour of crisis.
